Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Sierra Leone and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1962 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Jeff Mills to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Flash Fearless. All the underground hits.
All Notorious Big And Bone Thugs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & John Cale record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Flock of Seagulls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sly & The Family Stone,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Index,
The Birthday Party,
Liliput,
Barclay James Harvest,
Dark Day,
Television,
Roxy Music,
The New Christs,
Rekid,
Lightning Bolt,
The Divine Comedy,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Shadows of Knight,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Hot Snakes,
Lyres,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Essential Logic,
Pole,
Underground Resistance,
Echospace,
The Martian,
Aloha Tigers,
Groovy Waters,
The Red Krayola,
Bang On A Can,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Joey Negro,
The Grass Roots,
The Electric Prunes,
The Dave Clark Five,
the Human League,
Amon Düül,
Procol Harum,
Rufus Thomas,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Dual Sessions,
Minor Threat,
Second Layer,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Bootsy Collins,
Aaron Thompson,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Arcadia,
a-ha,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Black Bananas,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Can,
The Sisters of Mercy,
John Holt,
The Pop Group,
Cluster,
Grey Daturas,
Lalo Schifrin,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Fire Engines,
Smog,
Ludus, Ludus, Ludus, Ludus.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.